Alpha-
Centari hung hot in the sky over the surface of Camelio, the fourth
planet from the star. The planet's orbit was such that it allowed the
planet to sustain life, yet when the planet was at it's closest point
to the star the planet easily reached 50 degrees Celsius. As somebody
had once stated "It was enough to make a grenoth want to stay
out of the heat, and these reptilians loved heat! Despite the
insufferable heat however Danoth could not slow his trek across from
the mountainous terrain of the Anaktad Islands. He had to be at the
meeting
at Grenoodid within two cycles. Time was running short. He had
considered the possibility of using
the transport and beaming himself there. However, due to local
interference from an unknown source of radiation.,
transport in and out of his location was at best dangerous and in
most cases
impossible. He had hiked into the area a week earlier to investigate
the situation
and now had to get the information back to Command. He had made it
clear to Sub-Commander Le' Quon that if he did not report back within
15 cycles he was to be presumed dead. While he had no doubt about the
Sub,Commander's loyalties or friendship,
he knew Le'Quon would depart as scheduled,
leaving
him marooned on a deserted
island. Due to the fact that two previous expeditions had failed to
report, there would not be another. Danoth had insisted on
investigating the anomaly however, and had used his rank as Commander
to see that an investigation took place. It was his job to protect
the Val'ukarian Republic and if that meant risking his life then so
be it. However he was not going to risk the needless death of anymore
of his crew to investigate the cause of the anomaly.

Upon
departing the safety of the ship he had made his way over the
mountainous terrain to the site of the anomaly. What he had found
there chilled him to the bone. Some creature he had never seen before
had the last two members of the previous expeditions in a room with
no apparent doors. Deciding not to approach until he had analyzed the
situation, he quickly surmised that the creature was not from us
Camelio. He also quickly discovered that the source of the anomaly
was the extraterrestrial's ship. According to the instruments Danoth
carried in his pack, there was a strange magnetic field coming
from the craft. Danoth assumed it to be the craft's propulsion
system. While interstellar travel was not yet possible
ships approachedCamelio,
from other planets constantly.Designs
were on the table for a craft capable of interstellar
travel. The energy he detected was remarkably similar to the energy
scientists had predicted their own propulsion system would make. In
fact, it was the detection of the energy patterns by satellited that
had led to his ship being sent to investigate. Danoth assumed the
creature
within
was hostile. Otherwise why would it capture the crews sent here and
hold them captive. Also, where were the remaining crew members?
Twelve total had been dispatched.聽

Danoth
soon had his answers. The creature, which looked like a walking
jellyfish, came into view. It approached the two remaining crew
members, stretched out its tentacles toward them and started to glow.
The two crew members both screamed as they began to seemingly shrink
in on themselves! Danoth assumed they were being eaten from the
inside out. He had never seen anything like it and hoped never to see
it again. He knew he had to escape and tell his commanders what he
had seen. From the looks of the alien's technology Danoth wondered if
anything on Camelio would defend against them. What if the jellyfish
like creature was the first part of an invasion force? Danoth did not
want to permit himself to ponder that thought. He had witnessed what
just one of the creatures could do. An invasion force would be
devastating. He had to get word to his commanders. They would have a
hard time believing him but he had used his vid graph to film the
incident. Vid graphs were standard issue with every Val'ukarian
combat uniform. They activated automatically when the soldier slid
the uniform over his antennas and would remain active for as long as
the soldier wore the uniform. Anything the soldier saw would be seen
by the camera because it downloaded everything that passed the
soldier's optic nerve using a sophisticated technology recently
developed. Each camera would video for as long as the soldier wore
that particular uniform, whether one day or one lifetime.聽

Danoth
knew he had to get this information back to Command. He also knew it
would have to go through channels. It was this last part
that
worried him. Going through channels on Camelio basically meant going
to the upper echelons of a particular kingdom and then encountering
the unrelenting paranoia and bickering that went on there. Danoth
knew the kingdoms would have to fight as one if they were to survive
a battle with the Melothnoth'ks as he was now calling them. It was a
name he had derived from the Ungantanak word "melothnk"
meaning "sucker". Ungantanak was a dialect once verbally
spoken by his race centuries before, before the holocaust that
mutated the whole planet and resulted in planet wide psychic
abilities. The inhabitants of Camelio soon broke down into warring
factions, .each with a different psychic power. Danoth;s
group,
Val'ukaria had the ability to control fire. It was obvious however,
that as formidable a weapon as pyrokinesis was, it didn't work the
Melothnoh'ks or the creature would not have so easily captured his
crew! He had considered the possibility that the Melothnoth'k was a
creation of the powerful Nahhhnanksti's faction, who had the ability
to manipulate material with their minds. However he knew that even
they did not have the technology the creature possessed. Besides this
was no time for the factions to be accusing each other. They needed
to unite to defeat what would soon become a common foe. Danoth knew
that there was only one person on Camelio who would be able to unite
the clans. That was the elusive Mer' cah.
There were only two problems with that theory. First,
nobody
knew for sure who Mer'chah
was
or if such a person even existed. Second:
It
was known by legend that Mer'cah would devote himself to the
development of his psychic powers. Therefore it was unlikely he would
be easily persuaded to be a mediator between bickering factions. This
was an emergency however. Whatever the great leaders personal wishes
were they would simply have to wait!

Danoth left camp earlyon
the morning of the rendezvous. For nearly a week he had traversed
dangerous terrain and the last three days seen him cross the worst of
the lot. Many times he had free climbed thousands of feet up on the j
jagged peaks of the large island. One mistake or one miscalculation
would have meant certain death. At one point he nearly did die the
previous day but found himself saved by a most unlikely ally. He had
been about fifty tenoks from the top of a cliff when his hold broke
and he found himself plummeting toward his death. Suddenly he stopped
in mid-air, as if a giant hand had caught him. Then he felt himself
being lifted by the invisible hand, to the top of the mountain, where
he found himself face to face with a warrior from the T''lockahhah
clan, his clan's most bitter rivals. They were known for their
telekinetic powers. Danoth prepared to propel a fire bolt at the
rival warrior but decided against it. After all the warrior could
have simply let him fall. He had saved Danoth for a reason. Danoth.
was curious as to why!

"I have been shadowing you
since you left the monster's ship" the T'lockkahah warrior
stated. '!My name is Zerahth. It appears obvious to me that you came
here for the same reason I did and your crew met the same fate as my
crew met. Whatever that thing is, it's obviously a threat to both our
clans and to all the clans of Camelio. I saved you because I think we
should work together to defeat a common enemy. Perhaps we can make
peace among the clans in the process?"Danoth knew already
that, even though their clans were bitter enemies, he was going to
like Zerahth. The warrior had shown good sense in not approaching him
before that moment. If he had, Danoth would have killed him outright.
No T'lokahhah warrior ever confronted a Val'ukarian in face to face
combat. Telekinesis, while formidable, was never a match to somebody
who could set you aflame with a gaze. Yet Danoth knew the warrior was
correct. It was time to set prejudice aside and work together."I
agree" IDamoth replied. "Let's just hope our ships don't
spot each other and destroy each other before we get back!""They
won't" Zerahth said with confidence. "I rigged up one of my
vid graphs to work as a communicator and increased the output to cut
through the emissions from the alien craft, which I have determined
to be some sort of magnetic disturbance similar to the magnetic
signature of a singularity but not a singularity. I'm a scientist and
the energy signature of the anomaly is similar to my field of study.
Thus I was a signed to a team sent to investigate it. Then my crew
were captured. I escaped only because I was a kilion away when they
were captured. I saw them consumed just
as
your crew was. Then I saw your crew approach. I wanted to warn them
but knew they would kill me on sight. You have my condolences on the
loss of your team."

"And you have my condolences on
the loss of yours" Danoth said sincerely. "Now you were
saying you were able to develop a communication device?""Yes!"
Zerath replied. "In fact I was hoping you would use it to
contact your ship and ask them not to engage my ship which is
currently sitting cloaked just off the port bow of your own. The
cloaking device works by focusing our telekinetic powers to alter the
molecular structure of our ship, creating invisibility. However it
uses a massive amount of energy to do so and the strain on the minds
of the crew is immense. We need to be able to stand down soon or my
crew may die and both ships would be destroyed by the
feedback."Zerahth showed Danoth how to work the device and
backed off a respectable distance to allow him to enter the ultra
secret frequency.Sub-Commander Le'Quon was both re!ieved and
surprised when he received the word that Commander Danoth was calling
him on coded frequency. He took the communication in the ready room.
"It's great to hear from you Commander" Le'Quon began.,
"but how are you able to communicate through the
interference?""There's no time to explain" Danoth
answered. "Let' s just say I made a new friend who pulled a
zocasnon out of a hat
and
made it possible. Now Le'Quon listen close. There is an Imperial
T'lockahhah warship sitting under cloak off of your port bow. It is
going to uncloak and you will in no way do them harm! Is that
clear?""Yes sir!" Le'Quon answered. "I don't
know what you're doing but I will comply!""Things are
going to change on our world starting today" Danoth told his
second-in-command. As of now our clans have a common enemy and we
must work together to battle it. An obviously alien creature with
technology far surpassing our own has killed and eaten both a full
compliment of T'lockhahhahn warriors and our own team! I will show
you my vid graph recording of the alien eating the last of our crew
members when I return. My life was spared a few erkrons ago by my new
friend Zerahth. He is the lone survivor of the alien's attack. His
life was spared because he is a scientist and was some distance from
the alien when it attacked his crew. He has trailed me for three days
awaiting an opportunity to approach me. He got it when I fell free
climbing a rock face. He used his powersto
save my life. His crew is using tremendous energy to maintain their
ship's cloak which works by using a service to focus their
telekinetic powers to alter the molecular structure of their ship to
render it invisible. I understand they have never had to focus this
long before and they may have medical issues as a result. When they
lower their cloak you are to render assistance in any way
possible!"Le'Quon acknowledged his compliance and Danoth
handed the device back to Zerahth. Zerahth therm contacted his own
ship, which lowered the cloaking device. Commander Bi-rasck'h was
pleased to hear that he could safely lower the cloaking device of his
ship. His men had maintained their focus far beyond what was
safe and he had been prepared to order the science officer to
surrender to Danoth and simply hope he survived the encounter long
enough to explain himself. Instead fortune had smiled on them and the
scientist was not only able to make contact, but to befriend the
enemy officer as well. What was even more fortunate was that this
officer was also the enemy commander! Under the circumstances it was
obvious that they would have to work together to unite their clans
because both warriors could see that they had a mutual enemy. Both
warriors had the foresight to see that it would take the combined
efforts of all their clans to combat the creatures if the one who had
killed their crews was indeed the first part of some out world
invasion force.